‘Just Go’ Download Shalonda’s Mixtape

Recipe for win: timeless jazz standards + immediately recognizable hip-hop instrumentals + a coquettish singing voice reminiscent of a young Jill Scott. Just Go...A Mixtape is the dish and Philly songstress Shalonda the newest cook in the kitchen. Hard to believe the 7-song EP is her first project. It's a stunningly well done and unique mashup compilation that marries oft-covered staples like "God Bless the Child" and "Strangers in the Night" with the familiar tribal heartbeat of Kanye's "Love Lockdown" and the Jay-Z's rock hard "D.O.A.," respectively. "Fever," a long-standing personal favorite of mine, has been covered and re-imagined hundreds of times but never quite like this--riding over Kid Cudi's "Day and Night"--and even getting chopped and screwed in the last 30 seconds. And who would've known "Misty Blue" would work so well and be so hauntingly stellar over the sparse "Say You Will" instrumental? Who is this chick? Imaginatively weird bio on her site aside, she's a relative mystery but I did find her on Twitter. So just go downloadJust Go...A Mixtape, experience it in its entirety (runtime is less than half an hour total) and let her know what you think of it. Support new artists with an original take. I guarantee you've never heard these songs quite like this before.
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